A 41-year-old Missouri man is heading to prison after pleading guilty to shooting his pregnant girlfriend, killing her and her unborn twins.
Darryl Tyson Jr. pleaded guilty Tuesday to three counts of second-degree murder and one count of domestic assault in the death of 28-year-old Bre’Anna Johnson, the St. Charles County Prosecuting Attorney said. A judge sentenced him to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years.
According to a courtroom report from local NBC affiliate KSDK, an autopsy revealed Tyson shot Johnson five times in the back in October 2024 — a finding that ultimately undermined his self-defense claim. Prosecutors said Johnson was also apparently falling when she was shot.
Tyson’s defense attorney said his client had been prepared to go to trial and assert self-defense, but acknowledged that the autopsy results prompted the defense to change course.
“When it happened, he initially told the police that he believed that she was facing him,” attorney Raphael Morris told KSDK. “Obviously, once we got the discovery and seen the photographs from the autopsy, that was not accurate. After much consideration, he decided entering a plea of guilty was in his best interest.”
Johnson had just celebrated her 28th birthday and was four months pregnant when she was killed. Her mother, Janette Perry, brought her daughter’s ashes to the sentencing.
“I wanted her to see. I wanted her to hear him say guilty,” Perry told KSDK. “It wasn’t a jury that said he was guilty. He said he was guilty. That was justice for Bre’Anna, and I wanted her to hear that.”
Perry said she wants her daughter’s killer to spend the rest of his life behind bars.
“I would like it to be worse. I’d like him to never see the light of day. It’s justice for Bre’Anna and her sons,” she said.
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